Congress Signals Changes to EPA-OSHA Coordination for Chemical Safety Regulation in 2026 Spending Package
As part of the 2026 appropriations package, on January 6, 2026, the U.S. House and Senate Committees on Appropriations issued a joint statement outlining several procedural changes they are seeking for the U.S. EPA’s regulation of toxic chemical substances. The appropriations bill passed in the House last week, and is now pending before the Senate.
Congress Eliminates Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Penalties for Passenger Cars and Light Trucks
In one of its many changes, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted on July 4, 2025, eliminated civil penalties for noncompliance with federal fuel economy standards. Specifically, Section 40006 of the Act amends the language of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) statute to reset the maximum civil penalty to $0.00. Although the statute and its implementing regulations otherwise remain in place, this amendment removes any civil penalties for producing passenger cars and light trucks that do not meet fuel economy requirements.
Congress Passes ADVANCE Act to Facilitate U.S. Development of Advanced Nuclear Reactors
On June 18, 2024, the U.S. Senate passed the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act to accelerate the deployment of nuclear energy capacity, including by accelerating the licensing and creating new incentives for advanced nuclear reactor technologies, among them small modular reactors. The Senate introduced the ADVANCE Act in March 2023, and the House of Representatives passed the Fire Grants and Safety Act, which contains the ADVANCE Act, on May 8, 2024. Now that both houses have passed the Act, it will go to President Joe Biden for signature. Full text of the ADVANCE Act as passed by the Senate can be found here on page 4.
